The Century Vocabulary Builder Part 21

sheep, mutton deer, venison horse, equine cow, bovine bull, taurine sheep, ovine wolf, lupine hog, porcine bear, ursine fox, vulpine cat, feline dog, canine fish, piscatorial mouse, vermin rat, rodent mankind, humanity man, masculine woman, feminine childish, infantile boyish, puerile

A glance at this list will show that, at least as regards animal life, the native word is likely to be the more familiar and unpretentious. But we must not leap to the conclusion that, taking the language as a whole, the simple, easy word is sure to be native, the abstruse word cla.s.sic. In the following list one word in each pair is simpler, oftentimes much simpler, than the other; yet both are of cla.s.sic origin. (In some instances the two are doublets; that is, they spring from the same stem.)

boil, effervesce plenty, abundance force, coerce clear, transparent sound, reverberate echo, reverberate toil, labor false, perfidious prove, verify join, unite join, annex try, endeavor carry, convey save, preserve save, rescue safe, secure poor, pauper poor, penurious poor, impecunious native, indigenous strange, extraneous excuse, palliate excusable, venial cannon, ordnance corpse, cadaverous parish, parochial fool, stultify fool, idiot rule, govern governor, gubernatorial wages, salary nice, exquisite haughty, arrogant letter, epistle pursue, prosecute use, utility use, utilize rival, compet.i.tor male, masculine female, feminine beauty, esthetics beauty, pulchritude beautify, embellish poison, venom vote, franchise vote, suffrage taste, gust tasteful, gustatory tasteless, insipid flower, floral count, compute cowardly, pusillanimous tent, pavilion money, finance monetary, pecuniary trace, vestige face, countenance turn, revolve bottle, vial grease, lubricant oily, unctuous revive, resuscitate faultless, impeccable scourge, flagellate power, puissance barber, tonsorial bishop, episcopal carry, portable fruitful, prolific punish, punitive scar, cicatrix hostile, inimical choice, option cry, vociferate ease, facility peaceful, pacific beast, animal chasten, castigate round, rotunda imprison, incarcerate bowels, viscera boil, ebullient city, munic.i.p.al color, chromatics nervous, neurotic pleasing, delectable accidental, fortuitous change, mutation lazy, indolent fragrance, aroma pay, compensate face, physiognomy joy, rapture charitable, eleemosynary blame, blaspheme priest, presbyter coy, quiet prudent, provident pupil, disciple story, narrative pause, interval despise, abhor doctor, physician fate, destiny country, rustic aged, senile increase, increment gentle, genteel clear, apparent eagle, aquiline motion, momentum nourishment, nutrition pure, unadulterated closeness, proximity number, notation ancestors, progenitors confirm, corroborate convert, proselyte benediction, benison treasury, thesaurus egotism, megalomania

Sometimes the native word is less familiar than the cla.s.sic:

seethe, boil loam, soil fare, travel abide, remain bestow, present bestow, deposit din, noise quern, mill learner, scholar shamefaced, modest hue, color tarnish, stain ween, expect leech, physician shield, protect steadfast, firm withstand, resist straightway, immediately dwelling, residence heft, gravity delve, excavate forthright, direct tidings, report bower, chamber rune, letter borough, city baleful, destructive gainsay, contradict cleave, divide hearten, encourage h.o.a.rd, treasure

Again, the native word is sometimes less emphatic than the cla.s.sic:

fly, soar old, venerable flood, cataclysm steep, precipitous wonder, astonishment speed, velocity sparkle, scintillate stir, commotion stir, agitate strike, collide learned, erudite small, diminutive scare, terrify burn, combustion fire, conflagration fall, collapse uproot, eradicate skin, excoriate hate, abominate work, labor bright, brilliant hungry, famished eat, devour twisted, contorted thin, emaciated sad, lugubrious mirth, hilarity

Despite these exceptions, the native word is in general better known and more crudely powerful than the cla.s.sic. Thus of the pair _sweat-perspiration, sweat_ is the plain-spoken, everyday member, _perspiration_ the polite, even learned member. The man of limited vocabulary says _sweat_; even the sophisticated person, unless there is occasion to soften effects, finds _sweat_ the more natural term.

No one would say that a horse perspires. No one would say that human beings must eat their bread in the perspiration of their faces. But _sweat_ is a word of connotation too vigorous (though honest withal) for us to use the term in the drawing room. A questionable woman in _The Vicar of Wakefield_ betrays her lack of breeding by the remark that she is in a muck of sweat.

The native word, besides being in itself simpler and starker than the cla.s.sic, makes stronger appeal to our feelings and affections. In nearly every instance the objects and relationships that have woven themselves into the very texture of our lives are designated by native terms. Even if they are not so designated solely, they are so designated in their more cherished aspects. We warm more to the native _fatherly_ than to the cla.s.sic _paternal_. We have a deeper sentiment for the native _home_ than for the cla.s.sic _residence_.

That the native is the more downright term may be seen from the following words. (These pairs are of course merely ill.u.s.trative. With them might be grouped a few special pairs, like _devilish-diabolical_ and _church_-_ecclesiastical_, of which the first members are cla.s.sic in origin but of such early naturalization into English that they may be regarded as native.)

belly, stomach belly, abdomen navel, umbilicus suck, nurse naked, nude murder, homicide dead, deceased dead, defunct dying, moribund l.u.s.t, salacity lewd, libidinous read, peruse lie, prevaricate hearty, cordial following, subsequent crowd, mult.i.tude chew, masticate food, pabulum eat, regale meal, repast meal, refection thrift, economy sleepy, soporific slumberous, somnolent live, reside rot, putrefy swelling, protuberant soak, saturate soak, absorb stinking, malodorous spit, saliva spit, expectorate thievishness, kleptomania belch, eructate sticky, adhesive house, domicile eye, optic walker, pedestrian talkative, loquacious talkative, garrulous wisdom, sapience bodily, corporeal name, appellation finger, digit show, ostentation nearness, propinquity wash, lave handwriting, chirography waves, undulations shady, umbrageous fat, corpulent muddy, turbid widow, relict horseback, equestrian weight, avoirdupois blush, erubescence

The word of cla.s.sic origin in many instances survives only or mainly in the form of an adjective; as a noun (or other part of speech) it has completely or largely disappeared. This fact may be observed in lists already given, particularly List A. It may also be observed in the following words:

moon, lunar star, stellar star, sidereal sun, solar earth, terrestrial world, mundane heaven, celestial h.e.l.l, infernal earthquake, seismic ear, aural head, capital hand, manual foot, pedal breast, pectoral heart, cardial hip, sciatic tail, caudal throat, guttural lung, pulmonary bone, osseous hair, hirsute tearful, lachrymose early, primitive sweet, dulcet, sweet, saccharine young, juvenile b.l.o.o.d.y, sanguinary deadly, mortal red, florid bank, riparian hard, arduous wound, vulnerable written, graphic spotless, immaculate sell, mercenary son, filial salt, saline meal, farinaceous wood, ligneous wood, sylvan cloud, nebulous gla.s.s, vitreous milk, lacteal water, aquatic stone, lapidary gold, aureous silver, argent iron, ferric honey, mellifluous loving, amatory loving, erotic loving, amiable wedded, hymeneal plow, arable priestly, sacerdotal arrow, sagittal wholesome, salubrious warlike, bellicose timely, temporary fiery, igneous ring, annular soap, saponaceous nestling, nidulant snore, stertorous window, fenestral twilight, crepuscular soot, fuliginous hunter, venatorial

The fact that English is a double-barreled language, and that of parallel terms one is likely to be native and the other cla.s.sic, is interesting in itself. Our lists of parallels, however, though (with the exception of List B) they are arranged to bring out this duality of origin, have other and more vital uses as material for exercises. For after all it matters little whether we know where a word comes from, provided we know thoroughly the meaning and implications of the word itself. The lists already given and those to follow show the more important words actually yoked as parallels. Your task must be to ascertain the differences in import between the words thus joined.

EXERCISE - Parallels

Study the discriminations between the members of the following pairs. At each blank in the ill.u.s.trative sentences insert the appropriate word.

_Brotherly_ is used of actual blood kinship, or indicates close feeling, deep affection, or religious love.

_Fraternal_ is used less personally and intimately; it normally betokens that the relations are at least in part formal (as relations within societies). "The sight of the b.u.t.ton on the stranger's lapel caused Wilkes to give him the cabalistic sign and ask his ____ a.s.sistance."

"Though the children of different parents, we bear for each other a true ____ devotion." "Because we both are newspaper men I feel a ____ interest in him."

_Daily_, the popular word, is often used loosely. We may say that we eat three meals daily without implying that we have never gone dinnerless. _Diurnal_, the scientific term, is used exactly, whether applying to the period of daylight or to the whole twenty-four hours. A diurnal flower closes at night; a diurnal motion is precisely coincident with the astronomical day. In poetry, however, _diurnal_ is often used for _daily_. "Give us this day our ____ bread." "The ____ rotation of the earth on its axis is the cause of our day and night." "Fred and I went for our ____ ramble through the hills."

Which is the more popular word? Let us see. Would the man in the street be more likely to use one than the other? Which one?

Does this answer our question? Another question: Which word is the more inclusive in meaning? Again, let us see. A blacksmith is beating iron; does the iron grow cold or frigid? Which term, then, approaches the closer in meaning to the idea of mere coolness? On the other hand, may that same term represent a temperature far beyond mere coolness? Would you speak of a morning as bitterly cold or bitterly frigid? Now think of the term you have not been using. _Can_ it convey as wide meanings, or is it limited in range? Does the word _frigid_ carry for you a geographical suggestion (to the frigid zone)? Do you yourself use the term? If so, do you use it chiefly (perhaps entirely) in connection with human temperament or demeanor? Is _cold_ used thus figuratively also? Which is the more often thus used? "I suffer from ____ hands and feet." "The slopes of Mont Blanc are ____ with eternal snow." "He did not warm to the idea at all.

His inclinations are absolutely ____."

. _Manly_ implies possession of traits or qualities a man should possess; it may be used of immature persons.

_Virile_ implies maturity and robust masculinity; it is also used of the power to procreate. "A ____ lad." "A ____ reply." "____ energy."

"____ and aggressive." "____ forbearance,"

. _Inner_ is somewhat within, or more within than something else is; it is also used in figurative and spiritual senses. _Internal_ is entirely within. "The ____ organs of the human body." "The ____ layer of the rind." "The injury was ____."

"The ____ nature of man." "The ____ meaning of the occurrence."

. "He was five feet, eleven inches in height."

Can you subst.i.tute _alt.i.tude_? Is _alt.i.tude_ used of persons?

"At an alt.i.tude of eleven feet from the ground." Would _height_ be more natural? Does _alt.i.tude_ betoken great height? If so, does Hamlet speak jestingly when he greets the player, "Your ladyship is nearer heaven than when I saw you last, by the alt.i.tude of a chopine?" What of the sentence: "The alt.i.tude of Galveston was not sufficient to protect it from the tidal wave"? Does the magnitude or importance of the object (Galveston) compensate for its lack of elevation and thus justify _alt.i.tude_? Could _height_ be subst.i.tuted? If so, would the words _above sea-level_ have to follow it? Does this fact give you a further clue as to the distinction between the two words? You are comparing the elevation of two peaks, both plainly visible; you measure them merely by your eye. Do you say "This exceeds the other in height" or "This exceeds the other in alt.i.tude"? Suppose the peaks are so distant from each other that the two are not visible simultaneously, and suppose you are speaking from a knowledge of the scientific measurements. Do you say "This exceeds the other in height" or "This exceeds the other in alt.i.tude"?

. _Talk_ may be one-sided and empty.

_Conversation_ requires that at least two shall partic.i.p.ate, and it is not spoken of as empty, though it may be trivial. "Our ____ was somewhat desultory." "Thought is less general than ____."

"His ____ was so lively that I had no chance to interrupt"

"That is meaningless ____."

. All of us have heard physicians call commonplace ailments by extraordinary names. When homesickness reaches the stage where a physician is or might be called in, it becomes nostalgia.

The latter term suggests morbid or chronic suffering. A healthy boy away from home for the first time is homesick. An exile who has wasted himself with pining for his native land is nostalgic. "His ____ was more than ____; it had so preyed upon his thoughts that it had grown into ____."

Rise, ascend. _Rise_ is the more general term, but it expresses less than _ascend_ in degree or stateliness. "He had foretold to them that he would ____ into heaven." "Do not ____ from your seat." "The diver slowly ____ to the surface." "The travelers ____ the mountain."

. _Sell_ is the more dignified word socially, but may express greater moral degradation. _Vend_ is used of the petty (as that which can be carried about in a wagon), and may suggest the pettily dishonest. "That man would ____ his country." "We shall ____ a million dollars' worth of goods." "The hucksters ____ their wares."

Study the discriminations between the members of the following pairs.

Determine whether the words are correctly used in the ill.u.s.trative sentences. (Some are; some are not.)

. _Friendly_ denotes goodwill positive in quality though perhaps limited in degree; we may be friendly to friends, enemies, or strangers. _Amicable_ is negative, denoting absence of open discord: it is used of those persons between whom some connection already exists. "The newcomer has an amicable manner." "Both sides were cautious, but at last they reached a friendly settlement." "I have only amicable feelings for an enemy who is thus merciful." "The two met, if not in a friendly, at least in an amicable way."

. Both words imply an act of the will; but _willing_ adds positive good-nature, desire, or enthusiasm, whereas _voluntary_ conveys little or nothing of the emotional att.i.tude.

_Voluntary_ is often thought of in contrast with _mechanical_.

"They made willing submission." "They rendered whole-hearted and voluntary service." "Though torn by desire to return to his mother, he willingly continued his journey away from her." "The sneeze was unwilling."

_Greedy_ denotes excessiveness (usually habitual) of appet.i.te or, in its figurative uses, of desire; it nearly always carries the idea of selfishness. _Voracious_ denotes intense hunger or the hasty and prolonged consumption of great quant.i.ties of food; it may indicate, not habitual selfishness, but the stress of circ.u.mstances. "n.o.body else I know is so greedy as he." "The young poet was voracious of praise." "Trench, though a capital fellow, was so hungry that he ate voraciously."